KONK Life interviews, Louie Gonzalez, the Mayor for the City of Marathon, regarding performance of new city manager and off-street parking 

KONK Life interviews, Louie Gonzalez, the Mayor for the City of Marathon, regarding performance of new city manager and off-street parking 

Konk Life: As you are welcoming a new city manager please tell us about his performance?

Louie Gonzalez: Chuck Lindsay, started with us roughly five years ago. And he came in at a transition point as well. He came in when the city hall building was being built and our city was working out of Claire’s. He came in during the time and then he transitioned the staff from trailers into the building shortly. Thereafter, we started the Annex building on 104 Street, where we currently have the sewer department as well as public works because, like, within a growing city, you continue to have you have equipment, you have staff, and you need to have places to put them. So, for us, Chuck came in at a very pivotal point. We all know what happened in 2017. He was a catalyst before, during, and after the Hurricane Irma. Chuck was in the trenches, and he helped us navigate through a very-very critical point in the city. And then this year, the beginning of the year, we were hit with a computer hacking again. Chuck was a catalyst and getting us through it. And now, we all know that for the last 6-7 months, we’ve all been faced not here locally, but on a national level, with the pandemic. Every day is a new day was a pandemic because there’s so much unknown and Chuck is always, kept this in the forefront and he kept our city moving.

We brought George Garrett for me. He was an obvious choice as the new incoming city manager, George’s been working not only for the city, but for the county, collectively 35 years. He’s very familiar with the political landscape, not only here locally, but at the state and federal level, as well. He’s a veteran of lobbying for fun. But more importantly, what sticks out to me, he has been here for 35 years, and can relate to the issues of our locals. He’s been here dealing with it on a daily basis, that the choice for me was simply based on experience and local knowledge and commitment to the community. So, I am honoured to have George serving us as a city manager and I look forward to working side by side with George and the rest of the Council for this year.

Konk Life: The City Marathon not being stuck in these COVID times, and the expansion of the office building located at the community park. Can you tell us about that?

Louie Gonzalez: The community park serves as our centre piece for our community, our locals, our children and for our visitors alike. And the park has continued to expand not only in what it’s offering, but also employees and personnel. And the original Park office, I think was set up for it had two or three operating desks for the workers. Currently, I went by theirs as early as last week, and there’s like eight full time employees that are working out of this office building that just isn’t conducive for work. So, we have that out to bid currently right now. I’m very excited about getting the bids back and getting the proposal back. So that way we could get moving on this project. This is something that would help our park Director Paul Davis tremendously because his staff will have the opportunity to spread out, work more convincingly. More importantly, it would give the park facility an opportunity on inclement weather days to have a facility for the kids if they need to come in for shelter, to have that opportunity. The park also serves as our summer camp program, and it gives other opportunities having a larger or larger facility.

Konk Life: There is a public boat ramps and off-street parking that appears to have created some problems with some of the residents that are living close to the ramps. What is the city doing to alleviate this problem?

Louie Gonzalez: Well, this is an issue that I have personally witnessed for many, many, years because I live near one of the boat ramps on Harbor drives. What we currently have three public boat ramps, we have the one on 33rd Street, the one on Harbor drive, and the one at the Clay property that the next to the clay property. Thankfully, the city purchased the Clay property several years ago, and allowed us to preserve that waterfront for the city. What compounded the problem this year was that I’d say March, April, we started to construct a reconstruction of the Clay parking lot. And that construction dragged into a mini season and opening up lobster season so that the boat ramp was basically unusable. So, the traffic it was a total nightmare. What we did immediately was we made it as safe as possible and use the boat rock the boat launch on a temporary basis until construction was completed and it alleviated the problem. Once many seasons came around the classic float a lot easier. So, I think moving forward, the plan is that you know with the three boat ramps, it will be very smooth operation.

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